Prog-Rock's Greatest Hits - the '70s

Much maligned by critics and non-believers alike, the creature known as "prog-rock" refuses to die. Progressive rock in the '70s was a particularly British affair, the often-questionable result of English art-school grads attempting to stretch the boundaries of rock music by incorporating elements of classical, Baroque and jazz to the genre's palette.

The musical results were often spotty and the experimentation didn't always work, but there's something about the best prog-rock efforts that captures the imagination of the listener. Most of the albums listed below have remained in print since their release, a testament to the staying power of the music and the ingenuity of the musicians that created these sounds. Although prog-rock's commercial pinnacle was all-to-brief - lasting from 1970 to 1976, basically - these essential '70s releases would come to influence two generations of prog-rockers to follow in their footsteps.

KING CRIMSON - In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969)
Although not technically a '70s release, King Crimson's debut album would essentially set the standard for all who would follow. Robert Fripp was a talented guitarist that would see his creative inclinations unleashed by the freedom afforded by King Crimson. Multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald was the band's secret weapon, embroidering the songs with keyboards, reeds and woodwinds while pre-ELP bassist Greg Lake, fresh off a stint with symphonic-rock band the Nice, brought no little imagination to the album's mix of dark-hued rock with jazz overtones. As experimental as one can get and still appeal to a hardcore rock audience, In The Court Of The Crimson King is a landmark album by any standard.

HIGH TIDE - High Tide (1970)
A British band that achieved more popularity in Europe than at home (or the United States), High Tide's unique sound was too original, too creative and, well, too strange to appeal to a mass audience. Fueled by the imaginative guitar work of Tony Hill and the raging violin of Simon House, High Tide was as heavy as Zeppelin, as virtuoso as King Crimson and as stubbornly anachronistic as any psychedelic-minded rockers in 1970. The band's self-titled second album was also its swan-song, featuring three - count 'em - three magnificent tracks totaling slightly more than a half-hour combined. Until it was recently reissued on CD, High Tide on vinylcommanded serious prices on the collector's circuit. A cult item, to be sure, but one of the more interesting one's you'll find.

URIAH HEEP - Look At Yourself (1971)
Perhaps Heep's most underrated effort in a career littered with such, Look At Yourself built the foundation for the band's mid-70s commercial peak that followed. A masterful blend of hard rock, progressive tendencies and prototypical heavy metal, the album successfully showcases David Byron's soaring vocal style, Ken Hensley's epic songwriting chops and Mick Box's spot-on and taut guitar lines. Love 'em or hate them, you can credit (or blame) Uriah Heep for both "New Wave Of Heavy Metal Bands" like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden or prog-metal outfits like Symphony X, et al. After all, it's a short jump from Byron to Rob Halford or Kotipelto and not too long a stretch of the imagination to connect the dots between Hensley's doom-laden keyboards and Goth-rockers like Opeth or Lacuna Coil.

YES - Fragile (1972)
Perhaps the most commercially successful of the first generation of prog-rock bands, and arguably the band that brought prog to the masses, Yes hit its stride with Fragile, the band's fourth album and first with keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Although it was literally "thrown-together" in the studio, Fragile offered eager AOR listeners a taste of classic prog with the radio-edit of "Roundabout." The album's science-fiction and fantasy themes and its extended instrumental work-outs struck a chord with mainstream rock audiences and made stars out of vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe and, of course, Wakeman. For good reasons, too, as Anderson's soulful falsetto-flavored vocals soared high above the mix while Howe's multi-layered guitars created a magnificent tapestry of sound. Wakeman's flamboyant keyboard wizardry was unlike anything rock audiences had previously experienced, and he left the band soon after Fragile to forge a brief solo career. Yes would record other fine '70s albums like Close To The Edge and the underrated Relayer, and the band would reinvent itself as a more pop-oriented hit machine during the new wave '80s, but Fragile remains the most influential entry in the Yes canon.

GENESIS - Foxtrot (1972)
Long before Phil Collins would hijack the band in pursuit of his pop-song dreams of wealth and fame, Genesis was Peter Gabriel's initial vehicle for prog-rock experimentation. Although King Crimson was avant-gardist and Yes was more Beatlesque, Genesis brought to bear the folkish tendencies of Family or the Incredible String Band on Foxtrot, the band's musical masterpiece. The album represents Gabriel's maturation as a lyricist and conceptualist, and the band - which included extraordinary guitarist Steve Hackett, inventive bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer Collins - was up to the job of supporting its frontman's flights of fancy. Although Genesis would continue to skip down the folk-prog trail throughout the decade, Gabriel's eventual departure would pave the way for the Collins-led evolution into a simpering pop band.

NEKTAR - Journey To The Center Of The Eye (1972)
One of the most unfortunately obscure of the '70s chart contenders, Germany's Nektar should have made a bigger impact than they did with Journey To The Center Of The Eye. The band's debut album is a multi-layered epic painting, with splashes of Krautrock, classical music, psychedelic introspection, guitar-driven hard rock and surreal lyrics hitting the canvas like a bolt from a jackhammer. Guitarist Roye Albrighton has never received the acclaim he deserves for coaxing the feral sounds he does from his axe while keyboardist Allan Freeman should have been Rick Wakeman huge, bringing as he does a more sophisticated, albeit less flamboyant instrumental palette to bear on these songs. Never again would Nektar sound this carefree and loose-limbed as they would venture leftwards in search of a prog formula that might make them stars.

PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
Were they prog or were they not prog? As Billy Shakespeare might say, "that is the question." Floyd's best-selling, landmark, chart-busting, influential Dark Side Of The Moon has hints of prog-rock flavor beneath Roger Water's lyrics and David Gilmour's incredible six-string mastery. By '73 the band had outgrown its Syd-inspired psychedelic meanderings and Nik Turner-inspired space-rock epics in favor of a lush, studio-created soundscape that is undeniably prog beneath its rock & roll aesthetic. If contemporary instrumental noodlers like Mars Volta can be called "prog" by no-nothing rockcrits, why not tag Floyd as such? Nevertheless, Floyd inspired a generation of prog-rock bands during the '80s and '90s. whether they like it or not.

HAWKWIND - Space Ritual (1973)
Cult rockers Hawkwind virtually invented space-rock, an ingenious combining of prog-inspiring '60s-style art-rock, first-gen electronic experimentation, throwback psychedelica and lysergic-fueled Sun-Ra sojourns to the center of the mind. The band's early songs featured lyrics by swords-and-sorcery-fantasy scribe Michael Moorcock, and if that ain't "prog," I don't know what is. Space Ritual was recorded live in a dervish-like frenzy, with Dave Brock's distorted guitar and Nik Turner's otherworldly vocals driving hard against rhythms punched out by Motorhead's Lemmy K. Part of an endless Mobius Strip of rock & roll that includes Brian Eno, Klaus Schultze, Ozric Tentacles, doom metal and just about every electronic band that you've ever danced to.

GENTLE GIANT - Free Hand (1975)
By mid-decade the prog party was mostly finis, but Gentle Giant never received the memo from the rock & roll front office. Formed by brothers Derek, Ray and Phil Shulman, Gentle Giant was a band in search of a sound over the course of a half-dozen albums, jumping from psychedelia to hard rock to avant-garde experimentation. The band's seventh album, Free Hand, proved to be Gentle Giant's most commercially successful, an artistic hybrid of classical roots and pop melodies with a hard rock edge that channeled the Beatles through Bach in search of the perfect chart hit. They would fumble the ball with the following year's bombastic LP Interview, but the band's primo prog-rock efforts - Free Hand, Octopus ('73) and In A Glass House ('74) - would in turn influence '80s proggers like Spock's Beard and the Flower Kings.

CARAVAN - Cunning Stunts (1975)
Like most '60s-era British rock bands, Caravan's roots were as R&B party-favors, but as numerous shuffling of the roster led to the most-successful, Pye Hastings-led line-up, the band found its niche as progenitors of a unique folk-prog sound. In a genre that absolutely thrives on the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, Caravan often turned heads with its uplifting blend of jazz, classical, British folk and capital-P Progressive rock. The secret to the band's modest success was Hastings poetic guitar lines, keyboard wizard David Sinclair's electronic riffing and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Richardson's elegant underlining of each song's soundtrack. Like much of the prog-rock legion, by 1980 Caravan and its brethren were overwhelmed by the rise of cro-mag punks and mindless new wave pop that stole their thunder and nicked their best licks. Somebody was listening, though, as prog-rock bubbled beneath the radar during the '80s and into the '90s.

Honorable Mention & Follow-Ups: Barclay-James Harvest's Everyone Is Everybody Else; King Crimson's Lark's Tongue In Aspic; The Soft Machine's Third; Greenslade's Bedside Manners Are Extra; and Neutron's Black Hole Star.